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“Realising that the attack would fail unless the enemy guns were silenced, Sjt Curtis, without hesitation, rushed forward through our own barrage and the enemy fire and killed and wounded the teams of two of the guns, whereupon the remaining four guns surrendered.

“Then turning his attention to a train-load of reinforcements, he succeeded in capturing over 100 enemy before his comrades joined him. His valour and disregard of danger inspired all.”

Curtis returned home to Cornwall but rarely spoke of his time in the war.

Horace Curtis from Cornwall

A biography of Curtis says of his post war years: “He rarely spoke of his achievement, humbled that he had been singled out for such an act when he had witnessed friends and colleagues carrying out similar acts of courage over those four long years, without official recognition, many of them losing their lives in the process. The overpowering emotion he recalled at the time of his action was one of anger.”

He joined the DCLI, where he rose to the rank of company sergeant major, and left the army a year after he got married in 1923.

Horace Curtis rarely spoke of his time fighting throughout the First World War

Curtis passed away in Redruth in 1968 at the age of 77.

His Victoria Cross is on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.